Process for recovering waste alcohol from liquor casks and barrels.



.BATENTED MAR. 20,. 1906.

I T. H. NI'IAUGHTON. PROCESS FOR BEGOVBRING WASTE ALGQHOL FROM LIQUOR GAISKS AND BARRELS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 5.1905.

E INV N UR;

a EM 5 UNITE-I) STATES PATENT OFFICE.

' THOMASIHENBY'NAUGHTON, or BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR.

BY M'ESNE, ASSIGNMENTS, OF ONE HALF TO MARY A. NAUGHTON, F BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, AND ONE-HALF TO MlC HA EL DUNN, OF

SPRINGFIELD, M ssAcHUsErrs.

PROCESS r03 RECOVERING WASTE ALCQlIOL FROM LIQUOR CASKS AND BARRELS.

' Specification of Letters Patent;

Patented March 20, 1906.

Application filed June 5.1905. Serial No. 263,730-

To all whom it may concern:

1 Be it lmown thatLTHoMAs HENRY NAUGH- .TON, a citizenof the United States, residing or wines have been emptied as far as possible or practicable of their contents there almost always remains some liquor in the barrels; or

absorbed by the wood of which the barrels casks which hasnot been drawn oil and which is Wasted. .Moreover, there is quite a percentage of the contained alcohol which has been are constructed.

My invention has for its object to. extract the liquor thus remaining in the receptacles and the alcohol remaining in the wood, and to reclaim its product, and to obtain by means of a suitable condenser alcohol of a high proof. I v i In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional elevation illustrating an apparatus adapted to carry out, my process'and accomplish the above result. Fig. 2 is a detail, in plan and section, of a steam-injector,

- whose position is indicatedin Fig." 1,

Similar numerals of reference indicate cor-v responding parts.

his apparatus is'fully illustrated and de scribed 1n an application for Letters Patent of the United States filed by me on the 11th day of January, 1905,and numbered 240,555.,

I will first describe sufficiently-for the purpose the difierent partsin this apparatus and afterwarddescribe' the process which is car-- ried out by means of the apparatus. l

1, 2, 3, 4, and 5'represen't liquor orwine barrels which have been emptied as far-as practicable of their contents, some of which are inv a horizontalrow and others. in a vertical row supported byja suitable bench 6. All the barrels are, connected together, and as many may be .placed a row as desired, a

5 floor with the barrels, and 9 re resents curved large number in practice, being usually treated at the same time.

7 represents a steam-boiler, and 8 a re-' 'ceiving-tank, usually located on the same pipes connecting upper. and ower chambers 9t, constituting condensersof ordinary construction located in the tank 10, provided with the overflow and supply pipes 11 and 12, respectively, the condensers being usually on a floor 13 above the barrels. A supplypipe 14 leads from the boiler 7 to the steampipe 15, which leads to ail-injector 16, provided'with a suitable pressure gage. From the oppositeend of the injector 116a pipe 17 leads to the interior'of the first barrel 1. The pipes .15 and 17 are provided with suitable valves '18 and 1,9, which when opened allow the passage of steam through said pipes 15 and 17, respectively. 'A pipe 20 connects the injector 16 with a pipe 21 which connects with the interior of the last barrel 5, said pipe being provided with a suitable thermometer 22. .The pipes 17, 21, and 20- constitute the circulation -pipes through which steam enters the first barrel and leaves the last barrel. The adjacent barrels are connected by tubular connections 23, connecting the interiors of the barrels in theentire series, each of said con'necti'ons'being rovided with a suitable stop-cock 24 and t e perforated injecting-pipe 25, extending into the interior of the barrel. These connections provide the completed circulation through the barrels.

I A pipe 26, provided with a suitable valve 27 extends from the steam-supply pipe 14 to I one end of the steam-injector 28, Flgs. ,1 and 2', and fromthe op osite end of the injectors. 'orizontally', Fig. 2, and

makes connection -with the condensers- '9,

'saidpipe being provided with an ordinary gage or water-glass 30, which operates to indicatethe condition of. the"condensers that is to say, whether they are clear or partially clogged, as by the filling in of charcoal. A pipe 31 leads from the condensers to the recelving-tank 8. The'upper end o the pipe 21 leads to a blow-off cook 32, which is connected by the discharge-pipe 33 with the pipe29. chain 34are sustained by a pulley 35, secured to the ceiling 13 and are connected'with a lever 36, which extends to-the blow-off cock.

In practice when the steam is st rted (as be.-

low described) the ball 34* hangs on the hook 34? and allows accumulation of sufiicient pressure to "sweat the barrels. The steam See Fig. 2.) A suitable ball and v is a plied slowly, and the ball remains on the hoo 3% until the barrels are brought to a suitable degree of heat. The ball is then removed and placed on the hook'34 thereby allowing the full opening of the valve 32, thus providing an adequate amount of steam to produce a complete circulation through the barrels. On each barrel is a Water-cock 37, from which a tube 38 extends down into the barrel toward that portion thereof which in the position in which the barrel is set is its lower end.

The condensers 9 being made ready for use and'provided with a sufiicient uantity of cold water the ball 34* is applie to the hook 343. The water-cocks 37 should be closed. The valve 18 is then opened, letting the steam pass through the pipe into the pipe 29 and t ence to the condensers.

injector 16 and the valve 27 in the pipe 26, the valve 19in the pipe 17, and any valve which there may be in the pipes 20 and 21 are opened and circulation begins immediately, the pipe 20 drawing the air and fumes from the barrels by means of the pipe 21 to the injector 16 and vaporizing the contents of the barrels. The vapor and steam are then carried through the pipes 15 and 17 to thebarrel 1, vaporizing its contents and the contents of the pores of the wood, and thence through the connections 23 to all the barrels in turn,;heating and vaporizing the contents of every barrel until a satisfactory degree of heatsa 139 Fahrenheit-is reached, as indicate by the thermometer 22, to allow by the transfer of the ball 34* to the hook 34 the full opening of the blow-oil stop-cock 32, thereby allowing the vapor to pass through the branch va 'or-pipe 33 to the main vapqr- T 1e recovered alcohol is then conducted through the outlet-pipe 31 to the receiving-tank. During this operation the injector 28 is receiving steam from the pipe 26, (the valve 27 having been opened, as above mentioned,) with .the elfect of materially assisting in drawing the vaporized contents of the barrels from the last barrel and through the pipes 21 and 33 to the pipe 29, thus assisting the circulation. The circulation is assisted, therefore, by both steam-injectors 28 and 16, the former being located in the path of the vapor which has been withdrawn from the barrels and is on theway to the condensers and assisting in drawing the air and fumes .siaeee' from the barrels and the latter in the ath of the steam which is on the way to the )arrels,

assisting in forcing the steam to the barrels,

carrying along with it the air and fumes which left the barrels at the beginning of the.

In order to remove the water (or the greater part of it) remaining in the barrels after the com letion of the process below described, the low-ofi cock 32 is closed and the valves 18 and 19 are opened, thus driving the steam into the barrels and forcing the reater portion of the water therein out t rough the tubes 38 and water-cocks 37.'

It will be seen that in this process circulation through all the barrels begins as soon as the steam is turned on and the barrels become quickly heated. Hence the vaporization is rapid and thorough, and the alcohol contained in the barrels and in the wood is quickly and thoroughly removed, even though there may be alarge number of connected barrels in line.

Having thus full described my invention, what I claim, and esire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The herein-describedmethod of recovering waste alcohol from a series of practically empty liquor casks or barrels, which consists in introducing a heated medium into a series of connected casks or barrels, drawing by means of a short-circuited circulation the contents of the barrels through the last barrel and vaporizing them and at the same time forcing the heating medium through the series of barrels beginning with the first barrel, and condensing the products thus removed from the series of barrels through the last barrel, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS HENRY NAUGHTON.

Witnesses:

HENRY WILLIAMS, A. K. H'oon; 

